Prepositions and adverbs of
position and direction
Definitions:
Prepositions
are functional words that express a relation between two elements in a
sentence. Most common prepositions express relative
situation or direction. Prepositions are followed by a noun, a pronoun,
or a noun phrase.
Adverbs are independent
words that qualify a verb, expressing manner, situation or time.
There
are less than forty common prepositions in English, but thousands of
adverbs.
Examples:
Prepositions:
The Queen
is at home.
Dinner is on
the table. Go to
bed.
Adverbs: They started slowly.
They're standing outside.
We're going together.
Most
prepositions have related adverbs.
Prepositions of position and
of direction
The table below lists the most common prepositions of position and of
direction, and the related adverbs for each case.
In this table, less common forms and rare or
equivalent forms are indicated in brackets ( -- ).
| Denoting
position
|
Denoting direction |
| Adverbs |
Prepositions |
Prepositions |
Adverbs |
|
at |
at, to 1 |
|
| *
in, inside, (within) |
in, inside, within |
into |
in, inwards |
| outside |
outside |
(out), out of 2 |
out, outwards |
| (on) |
on |
on, onto |
(on) |
|
(far from) |
from |
|
| overhead |
over, above 3 |
over (above) |
(overhead) |
| underneath |
under, (underneath) |
under, (underneath) |
|
| below |
below |
below |
|
|
|
up |
upwards |
|
|
down |
downwards |
|
far from |
from |
|
| nearby |
near |
(nearer) |
|
| (alongside) |
alongside |
along |
along |
| in between |
between |
(between) |
|
* Examples:
Since the "in" line offers a full and varied set of adverbs and
prepositions , here is a full set or examples for this line:
Adverbs
of position:
We're
staying in tonight. There's someone inside !
Prepositions
of position:
I live
in London. There are people inside the house. He lives
within a mile of the airport.
Prepositions
of movement:
Please
put all those bits into the box.
Adverbs
of movement:
I
can't manage to put this nail in. Look, now it's moving
inwards.
Footnotes:
1.
As prepositions of direction, "at" and "to" are not
synonyms. "At" is not common as a preposition of direction, and is only
used with the meaning of "towards" or "in the direction of", and then
only in some contexts. Compare these two sentences.
I
threw the ball to John. I threw a cup at John .
You can say "I'm
going to London next week",
but it is impossible to say: "I'm going at London
next week."
2. In classic English, "out of" is the
normal prepositon of direction.
Example: "I went
out of the house."
But increasingly, particularly in spoken English, the "of" is being
dropped, so you are likely to hear: "I went
out the house".
3. There is a small difference between "over" and "above" as
prepositions of position. Above
means over, but not
touching.
So you could say "There
are clouds above London",
but it would be strange to say "There
is fog above London".
Return to Linguapress home page
|
